For me the Xmas holiday is disturbed by painful memories. Family deaths at this time, relationships that did not survive till the spring, jobs that did not pan out, and dreams that were never fulfilled.

When I go to a store, all decked out for the holidays, I can see the associations build and I can be once again transported to moments of unsettledness. The toy section reminds me of a sister that died young, and never had a chance to play with the toys that were still under the tree at New Years.

My father died on my 43rd birthday, just a few days before Xmas, and I gave his eulogy before our large family. I was the oldest, and it fell to me.

Jeremiah 10:1 Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the Lord:

“Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, 3 for the customs of the peoples are false. A tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. 4 Men deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. 5 Their idols[a] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”

I love Bach's Xmas Oratorio and Handel's the Messiah and Verdi's requiem. The Mosque of Shiraz and reading the helarious fiction of the Bible and of course Xmas. My atheist friends love Xmas too. And during the spare time you have during the holidays...you can ponder:

execution for apostacy, genital mutilation, woman chained to the kitchen in their burkha, children denied medical treatment, work place descrimination, creationism taught in schools.

Or we can stir up shit over a tree in the village square and singing about living snowmen and red lighted reindeer while we give each other gifts and get drunk after enormous meals.

I used to have that attitude @Tim, of quoting scriptures to make other xians to see how wrong they were to celebrate xms, and calling passover weekend Easter weekend etc. But since I became a freethinker I just enjoy another excuse of enjoying my cognac and Windhoek Draught the whole week or weekend without anyone saying I have a drinking problem.